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Wright of Derby, Joseph (1734-97)

Creator details

Name
Wright of Derby, Joseph (1734-97)
Nationality
English
Biography
Joseph Wright of Derby (b.1734 d.1797) was an English painter who made a name for himself as a successful portraitist in the Midlands. In the 1760s he utilised tenebrism, painting various candle lit scenes. This is illustrated in his most famous work An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768). This work was described by Sir Ellis Waterhouse as ‘one of the wholly original masterpieces of British art’.
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Assets (228 in total)

A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, c.1766 (oil on canvas)
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768 (oil on canvas)
The Alchemist discovering phosphorus, 1771 (oil on canvas)
Benjamin Franklin, 1782 (oil on canvas)
Portrait of Dr Erasmus Darwin, 1770 (oil on canvas)
An Eruption of Vesuvius, seen from Portici, c.1774-6
The Iron Forge, 1772 (oil on canvas)
Arkwright's Cotton Mills, 1790s (oil on canvas)
Portrait of Dr Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) scientist, inventor and poet, grandfather of Charles Darwin, 1792-93 (see 142275)
John Jay, 1786 (oil on canvas)
Sir Richard Arkwright, 1789-90 (oil on canvas)
Dovedale by Moonlight, c.1784-85 (oil on canvas)
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